LITMIR.BIZ

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you. You have to get married. Those are the rules.”

      “I only kissed your Aunt Carly on her forehead, buddy. That’s what friends do.” He flashed her another one of those teasing, tempting grins. “Good friends.”

      Carly caught her breath.

      The gesture had been a little too friendly. As Jacob had comforted her in the living room, Carly had felt a security and a sense of belonging she hadn’t felt in years. She’d forgotten everything and hadn’t wanted the moment to end. Thank goodness for Austin’s screech or she might have done something stupid like kiss Jacob herself. Not on the forehead, but on the lips.

      What was going on?

      She hadn’t wanted to kiss anyone in a while. Nor did she want to feel compelled to kiss anyone, especially someone who lived on the other side of the country. Okay, she’d once been curious about his kiss, but she’d been a girl then. Not a grown-up. Best to keep her distance from him while she was here.

      “So if you kiss a girl on the forehead you don’t have to marry them, but if you kiss them on the lips, you do?” Austin asked.

      Carly bit back a sigh. “Sammy Ross might think you have to marry the person you kiss, but that’s not how it really works.”

      “How does it work?” Kendall asked.

      Feeling like a preschool teacher suddenly taking on a sex education class full of randy teenagers, Carly looked at Jacob for help. He tipped his chair back, clearly content to wait for her response. The devil.

      “Well.” She wasn’t sure how to proceed, but catching a red-eye flight back East sure looked tempting. “First you meet someone you like, then you date, then you fall in love and then, once you know you’ll get along for a long time, you marry.”

      Talk about an abbreviated lesson on dating. Maybe she should have told them to ask their mother instead. But Jacob flashed her the thumbs-up sign. She must have done okay to warrant that or he might have simply been trying to make her feel better.

      “Where does the kissing come into it?” Kendall asked.

      Carly didn’t bother looking at Jacob this time. Hearing a nine-year-old ask about kissing would probably paralyze any single guy. “Kissing can happen at any of those steps, but that’s something you do when you’re older.”

      “Much older.” Jacob told Kendall. Funny, he sounded more like a dad than a bachelor.

      The girl’s gaze darted between Carly and Jacob. “But you two could still get married. Then I could be a flower girl.”

      “We can’t get married,” Carly said. “We’re…friends.”

      “Shouldn’t you be friends with the person you marry?” Kendall asked.

      The girl was too smart for her own good. Carly needed to be more careful with what she said. “Of course, you should be friends, but Uncle Jake and I are…more like brother and sister.”

      Though that wasn’t really true. She’d never seen him as a brother. Growing up, she’d wanted him to be her boyfriend.

      “He’s not your brother though. My daddy was your brother.” Two lines formed over Kendall’s nose, the same way they used to on Nick, making Carly’s chest tighten. “But if you married Jake, he’d really be our uncle, not just someone we call uncle, and I could be a flower girl, Aunt Carly. Jessica Henry has gotten to be a flower girl twice. And I’ve never even been asked to be one.”

      Carly knew what growing up and comparing yourself to someone else felt like. She needed to tell her niece something, even if it meant facing the part of her past she’d tried hard to forget. “Did you know a long time ago, when you were only three years old, you were going to be a flower girl?”

      “I was?”

      She nodded.

      “Was I going to wear a pretty dress?” Kendall asked.

      “Yes,” Carly said. “A very pretty red dress made out of velvet and taffeta with layers of tulle to make the skirt poof out and a wreath of flowers in your hair.”

      “You looked like a princess wearing it,” Jacob added.

      Remembering, Carly smiled softly. “You sure did.”

      “But I never saw any pictures of me dressed like that,” Kendall said.

      Jacob started to speak, but Carly stopped him. “The wedding never happened.”

      Kendall tilted her chin. “Why?”

      Why? That question still haunted Carly. “The boy…the man I was going to marry, his name was Iain, had an accident when he was climbing with your daddy.”

      Kendall’s mouth formed a small O. “He died with my daddy on the mountain so you couldn’t get married.”

      “Yes.” Carly felt Jacob’s gaze on her, but she didn’t—couldn’t—look his way. She didn’t want to see sympathy or pity in his eyes. She’d had enough of that those first few months to last a lifetime. That was one of the reasons she’d left Hood Hamlet and headed to Philadelphia. She’d wanted to go somewhere—anywhere—where she could make a fresh start.

      “Did I know him?” Kendall picked up a cracker. “Iain?”

      Carly nodded. “He thought you and Austin were the two coolest kids around and loved you so much.”

      “Do you miss him?” Kendall asked.

      Carly forced herself to breathe. This was fast turning into the trip home to hell. Not that she blamed anyone, but dredging up the past this way wreaked havoc with her emotions. Ones she’d thought were long under control.

      “Yes, sometimes I still miss him.” She inhaled deeply. All she wanted was five more minutes with Iain. Thirty seconds would do. To say goodbye with love, not frustration and anger as had been the case. “But you know what? Iain is still with me. The same way your daddy will always be with you. In your heart.”

      “That’s what mommy said,” Austin said. He’d been so quiet Carly had almost forgotten he was there. “But I don’t remember him at all. Not even when I look at his picture.”

      “That’s okay, buddy.” Jacob mussed the boy’s blond hair. “You were only a year old.”

      “That’s right. You were just a little guy back then.” Carly put her arm around Austin’s chair. “But I can tell you lots of stories about your dad if you want. You can remember him that way.”

      Austin smiled. “Uncle Jake and Mommy tell me stories, but I want to hear yours.”

      “And you will.” Carly cleared her throat. “I know some really good ones.”

      “I remember him. Our daddy.” Kendall got a faraway look in her eyes. “Well, his voice. He used to sing to me.”

      Carly felt a tug on her heart. She could almost hear Nick’s voice drifting down from the nursery upstairs. “Your daddy sang to you all the time. You loved the song ‘My Favorite Things’ from The Sound of Music.”

      “If he stopped singing that song, you would cry,” Jacob said.

      Austin laughed. “Crybaby, crybaby.”

      “Be quiet.” Kendall frowned. “You’re the one who’s a big crybaby.”

      Austin folded his arms over his chest and pouted.

      “That’s enough, guys,” Jacob said.

      Austin returned to his snacks, but not Kendall.

      “You know, Uncle Jake,” she said. “If you started dating Aunt Carly tonight, you could probably get married before she has to go back home, and I could be a flower girl before I went back to school after winter break.”

      “Uh-huh. Listen, kiddo—”

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